It’s the kind of a tale, full of gumption and luck, that bucks up newbie filmmakers everywhere.

And, ironically, the story of how Ed Harris came to be in Noah and Logan Miller’s intimate debut, “Touching Home,” began at a film festival.

Tonight, the strong-jawed actor so memorable as a killer in “A History of Violence” and an astronaut in “The Right Stuff” will receive the Mayor’s Career Achievement Award during an evening of clips and conversation at the King Center on the Auraria campus at 7 p.m.

“I was being honored at the San Francisco Film Festival, and a young woman told me that there were two young men who insisted that they see me,” recounts Harris from the home he shares with his wife, Amy Madigan, and their 16-year-old daughter.

“They had their computer with them, and they showed me some footage of this film they wanted to make about their father,” says Harris of the twin brothers. “They’re real characters. They had enough energy to light up the whole building.”

The reasons “Touching Home” shouldn’t have happened went something like this: The Millers hadn’t made a film before; Harris didn’t really have time, just two weeks in December; did we mention they’d never made a film before and Harris had worked with Peter Weir, Oliver Stone and Ron Howard?

“They are really passionate,” says Harris. They jumped on those December weeks. “I’m glad I did it. I think it turned out pretty well.”

“Touching Home” is one of a number of debut features screening during the 32nd Starz Denver Film Festival, which runs through Nov. 22.

Ron Henderson, co-founder of the festival and a program adviser, put together a highlights reel for the tribute.

“I’ve compiled quite a few of these clips programs over the years. And this one was the most challenging and frustrating, the most fun and satisfying,” he says. “Early on, it became clear that with his 50-plus film career I was dealing with an embarrassment of riches. It was difficult to decide which films to take a clip from. Then, once I chose a film, which scenes to take from the film.”

In addition to Oscar-nominated roles in “Apollo 13,” “The Truman Show,” “Pollock” and “The Hours,” Harris has directed two impressive features. His artist bio, “Pollock” earned him an Academy Award nomination for his turn as abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock and earned Marcia Gay Harden an Oscar.

Last year, he shuttled from behind the cameras to in front of them for the fine Western “Appaloosa,” co-starring Viggo Mortensen.

It’s clear from the performances Harris gets that actors respond to his approach. “I think I know what doesn’t work,” Harris replied when asked about what he’s applied to directing from his experiences on the set.

“I know when people are, for lack of a better word, BS’ing. I think I have a way to talk to actors. But it’s an interesting proposition. Every actor’s different, and you have to talk to them as individuals. There’s no formulaic way to direct someone. Some people respond in certain ways. Others you have to creep up on a little bit. You want them to occupy the character or let the character occupy them.”

That’s not a bad description of what Harris so often accomplishes. In “Touching Home,” he digs into the broken, hard-headed physicality of a father who fails his sons again and again. He lives in a homeless man’s battered soul.

Asked if he has his own personal montage reel, Harris was circumspect. Instead, he lists roles he loves in films you may not have seen but might want to get from Netflix: “Copying Beethoven,” “The Third Miracle,” “Jacknife.”

Henderson is less taciturn. “It’s definitely a personal thing, but one of the most poignant scenes in the program comes from ‘The Hours.’ “

We know which one he means. Meryl Streep’s character arrives at friend Richard’s grungy, Greenwich Village apartment. Richard is dying of AIDS. He’s facing the waning hours with anger, confusion but also a terrible clarity. “I’ve stayed alive for you. But now you have to let me go,” he says, leaning on a cane.

“You have two extraordinary actors on the top of their game,” says Henderson. “Heartbreaking. That scene alone is worth the price of admission.”

Parking at Starz: We’re a sports and culture town. So while there’s plenty of parking near the Starz FilmCenter on the Auraria campus, give yourself a little extra time on the nights of Nov. 13, 14, 17 and 21. Across the way at the Pepsi Center, the Avs and the Nuggies will be doing their thing.

3 TO SEE TODAY

Because the documentary programs at the fest just keep getting better

“The Horse Boy”: Journalist Rupert Isaacson and his wife sojourn across Mongolia on horseback- visiting shamans in the hopes of healing their autistic son, Rowan, who engages with horses. The filmmaker was along for the lyrical, stirring ride.

Playing: Starz FilmCenter, 7 p.m.

Because Austin-style filmmaking really can rock

“Harmony and Me”: Director Bob Byington’s comedy about an indie rocker (played by indie rocker Justin Rice) who mopes mightily after being dumped by his girlfriend is better than the “mumblecore” movement it’s likely to be lumped in with.

Playing: Starz FilmCenter, 6:45 p.m.

Because the “Watching Hour” series has the most meta-programming

“Best Worst Movie”: Michael Paul Stephenson’s documentary finds that cult status confers celebrity allure upon the cast of the terrifically bad horror flick “Troll 2.” Most bemused? The lead who is now a small-town dentist.

“Judas,” a new novel by Amos Oz, is a paradox of stillness and provocation. The Israeli author, a long-rumored contender for the Nobel Prize, has reduced the physical action of this story to a tableau of domestic grief.